This article is part of Rapid Growth's Voices of Youth series, which features content created by Kent County youth in partnership with Rapid Growth staff mentors.
When Alexis VanZandt, a 17-year-old junior at Northview High School, got her first phone in sixth grade, it wasn’t for texting friends or scrolling through social media.
“I was only allowed to use it to call my parents if I was home alone or if I needed my mom,” VanZandt says. “That’s the only time I was allowed to use it. I wasn’t supposed to be on my phone playing games.
“I think it’s affected me in a good way, because most kids nowadays are getting phones when they’re 5, and it’s like they're so connected with their phones they don’t know how to do something without a phone.”
Many kids get their first phone around middle school. At first, parents often set rules about how the phone can be used. Some students find it hard to follow those limits, but others, like VanZandt, have learned how to use their phones in a balanced way.
She knows phones can be distracting, and it’s easy to lose track of how much you spend on your phone, especially when it’s always near you.
But they can also help keep you in contact with friends and family or be used for work, learning, or other important tasks.
“It is a distraction at times, but it does help me look up something real fast,” VanZandt says.
She believes that less time spent on phones improves productivity and engagement.
“I would probably use it less and do more stuff outside my phone,” VanZandt says.
Some schools and programs are teaching teens how to manage their screen time instead of banning phones completely. They’re showing students how to set limits, think critically about what they see online, and stay focused on real-life activities.
VanZandt says this kind of support helps teens like her build healthy habits.
Phones and mental health
Experts agree that smartphones are not all bad or all good. Tara Cornelius, a psychology professor at Grand Valley State University, studies how phones and social media affect relationships and mental health.
She points out that phones can be helpful, especially when teens use them to learn new things or connect with people who support them. But they’re not entirely good for people, either. One main issue is the stress they put on users’ mental health.
“There is some strong data to suggest that it’s at least correlated with mental health problems, social anxiety, and social comparison issues,” Cornelius says.
Cornelius says younger children are using phones more than ever. A study from a few years ago looked at how phone use affects children and teenagers. The results showed that screen time has both positive and negative effects, depending on how phones are used.
While “it’s hard to say that there are many beneficial aspects to phone use” among teens, Cornelius says, the biggest positive is “access to an exponentially larger database of information than was ever accessible to people before the internet.”
Power of social media
Teens today are so glued to their phones that their social awareness is starting to decline.
“Social media is part of the problem. It’s the amount of time people are engaging, oftentimes three or four times a day. That is really when we start to see some of those adverse correlates,” Cornelius says.
Online media changes our perception of what’s reality and what’s not, especially in young teens.
“Particularly for female identifying individuals, image-related or attractiveness type of stimuli seem to be particularly associated with adverse physiological effects like lowered self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and self-objectification,” Cornelius says.
Kids’ and teens’ engagement and attention have gone down increasingly. They aren’t as attentive anymore, and social media is a part of that.
“There’s this body of research that has started looking at people’s attention span. If we consume things in TikTok-like segments, our ability to focus on a novel or movie diminishes. The data suggests that our attention span is shifting,” Cornelius says.
The effects of what younger people see on social media platforms can be worrisome.
“The frontal lobe isn’t fully formed until about the mid-20s, and we become concerned about how this sort of fast-paced access to media will affect people long term,” Cornelius says.
Cornelius agrees that phones can be beneficial at times for teens.
“Like many things in this life, not the one brownie is the problem; it’s the accumulation,” Cornelius says.
Having your phone at all times, especially when trying to get ready or prepare for something, can sometimes affect that process. Learning when to put boundaries on cell phones is helpful and can create a healthy schedule.
“Being very cognizant of ‘OK, how am I turning this off when I find myself in that scrolling loop,’” Cornelius says. “Setting reasonable limits. The phone needs to be out of their sleeping area. There's really strong data that suggests that interacting with phones right before bed can be super disruptive to our sleep cycle.”
‘Happy medium’
Cornelius, a mother herself, says managing phone use at home can be a challenge.
“With our phone use, we need to find that happy medium,” she says. “It's an incredible source of information. However, we also have to be cognizant of those times when we interact with our phones in problematic ways. It's a constant struggle, especially for young people.
Her family sets clear boundaries.
“We limit the social media access. My teenager doesn't have Instagram. We know the data can contribute to adverse social comparisons and unrealistic standards of female beauty,” Cornelius says.
“She has a certain number of hours she's allotted each day. If there's any text that I want to look at, my child shows it to me. We’re trying to balance autonomy and keeping her safe,” Cornelius says.
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cottonbro studio/pexelsMany youth get their first phone around middle school.
She says many kids feel anxious without their phones, even for a short time.
“I experience a palpable anxiety because my phone is not literally on me. For kids and adolescents, it can be anxiety-provoking when they're separated from their phones,” Cornelius says. “In high schools, requiring students to use the phone hotel (putting phones in a school-controlled container during class or the school day) is a really interesting strategy to help young people develop a tolerance.”
Program offers strategies to parents
Last month, a consortium of charter and private schools underwritten by the DeVos Family Foundation hosted a free event aimed at helping parents navigate their children's use of technology and protect them from its potential pitfalls.
The event, “The Anxious Generation: Rethinking Screen Time for a Healthier Future,” focused on raising resilient, independent children in a tech-saturated world.
The gathering was a collaborative effort among Grand Rapids Christian Schools, Journey Academy, Living Stones Academy, The Potter’s House, and West Michigan Aviation Academy.
The group cites statistics showing that one in four 8-year-olds owns a cellphone, and by high school, more than 95% of teens report being online “almost constantly.”
For many parents, managing their children’s screen time can feel overwhelming.
Katherine Johnson Martinko, a national speaker and author of “Childhood Unplugged,” offered insights and strategies for approaching this issue with intention and confidence.
Dr. Dave Hoogstra, a Grand Rapids Christian parent and member of the planning committee for the event, says it was enlightening.
“My wife, Amy, and I both work in pediatric health care and have seen firsthand the realities of the adolescent mental health crisis,” he says. “As parents of two young children, we have wondered how we can help the hurting teens in our community and create a better world for our children to grow up in,” Hoogstra says.
“Hundreds of parents, teachers, and school administrators attended the event, and we are hopeful that it will be the beginning of ongoing efforts in our community to help our children by making intentional choices about screen time.”
Mazonnah Holiday is 16 years old. She attends Northview High School in Grand Rapids. She is a part of a journalism class at her school. She’s an author and a writer, having her pieces in two published books.